In For A Penny
by history lady 24
Summary: A one shot of Sybil and Tom during the middle of season two in which they take a ride together - of a different sort. Involves lots of flirting, a bit of feminism, and a rather close encounter.


_**Disclaimer - Not my characters...just something with which I like to have fun.**_

_**This little piece is set sometime towards the middle of the second season, when Sybil and Tom are obviously feeling a great deal for one another. While I know that the moments on screen often seem to make Sybil out to be the more timid of the two, I like to think that she had her moments of bravery as well, and occasionally showed Tom up a bit. **_

_**And if you're wondering at the end how they got themselves out of this situation, I have no idea. I just know that I had a great deal of fun getting them into it. :)**_

"Come on Tom. Really, it's not that hard."

Lady Sybil pursed her lips and tried to stop herself from smiling at Tom. He stood next to her, his body tense, as he surveyed the giant animal in front of him that refused to stand still.

"And I thought that you weren't afraid of anything," she goaded him, her eyes twinkling.

He wiped his hands on his pants for at least the third time. Shifting his weight from foot to foot, his mouth a tight, straight line, he looked about as nervous as Sybil had ever seen him.

_Well, except for when he proposed to me at York._ The thought flashed into her mind before she could stop it. She wrinkled her forehead slightly. _No. I will not think of that today. Not now. This is an afternoon to enjoy. _She turned and looked at Tom, who still had not moved any closer to the horse in front of him.

"Come on, now."

"I really don't think, milady…" his voice cracked slightly.

_My, he really is nervous!_, Sybil thought. _He hasn't called me that, when it's been just the two of us, in a long time._

"I really don't think that this is necessary." The blue eyes flickered her direction nervously.

Sybil crossed her arms over her chest and tried to look firm. "Well I disagree. I remember you very distinctly telling me, one afternoon, that posh people did nothing that required any sort of real physical work to it. And I told you that you'd be surprised…and so you promised me – boasted to me, if I remember your words exactly- that you could do absolutely anything that I've ever done. So here we are."

Tom turned and looked at Sybil darkly. "I didn't mean climbing on the back of some bloody animal that can't stand still for a moment."

She wanted to laugh so badly. Tom was very obviously frightened to even try and get up on the horse, and it amused her greatly.

"Go on. She's really very gentle."

"Gentle?" Tom's expression was one of completely disbelief as he watched the horse before him paw the ground again.

At that moment, Sybil could hold her laughter in no longer. Cupping the hand that wasn't holding the reins, she brought it up to her mouth and tried to cover her laugh as best she could.

Tom's face flushed red and he opened his mouth, and then closed it again in quick succession. This was all too much. And yet he knew that she would never let him hear the end of it if he failed.

Finally his stubbornness won out.

"Fine. I'll do it. But if I fall and break something and can't drive your father anywhere for the next several weeks, I will be sure to tell him exactly what happened and that the fault lies entirely with his youngest daughter."

Sybil giggled again. "Well all right, go on then."

With one more slightly annoyed look in Sybil's direction, Tom reached for the reins.

"No. I'll hold these for you while you mount. You focus on getting your foot into the stirrup and your other leg over, and then I'll hand you the reins."

"Alright."

With that Tom stretched his leg in the direction of the stirrup and grabbed for the edge of the horse's saddle. He made it about half way up when the horse suddenly took a step forward. The move so startled Tom that he let go suddenly and slid directly to the ground.

"Oh!" Sybil cried out, momentarily surprised, but then terribly amused at Tom's less than graceful slip.

"Don't say it," he warned, moving to stand up.

"Say what?" Sybil replied with a smile. "I'm just trying to hide my shock that you can't mount a horse perfectly the first time. I mean, since everything that we do is so easy, I assumed you'd have no trouble at all getting right up the first time."

Tom stood, brushing the leaves off his pants. Crossing his arms across his chest, he turned to stare at her. "Well, then, perhaps you should show me. Just to make sure I have the proper technique, of course, since you're quite the expert at it?"

Their eyes locked.

"But it's a man's saddle. Surely you know the difference between a man's and woman's saddle. There's no way I can…"

"Oh really." Tom's eyebrow arched. "And here I thought that a woman could do anything a man could do. Just imagine what all your fellow suffragettes would say now if they could hear you, Sybil Crawley, admitting defeat over a man's saddle."

This time it was Sybil's turn to give Tom a stormy look. Before he could react much, though, she took a step towards him. "Alright, then. But I don't have a mounting box, so if you'd be so kind as to give me a hand up..." Looping the reins around her hand, she moved to grab the saddle.

"Well, come on then. You don't want to be at fault for holding me back from conquering another outdated masculine notion, then?"

"Just show me what you need me to do, milady." There was a distinct challenge in his voice.

"Knell down on the ground, then, with one knee, and then I'll use that as a step so I can mount."

_She's actually going to do it! _ Tom thought. _She's actually going to get up on that beast, astride, and ride it as a man would. And I get to watch the entire thing…._

Suddenly the prospect of spending his afternoon with the animal in front of him didn't seem quite so foreboding.

Sybil, meanwhile, was trying not to flush at the thought of exactly how much of herself she was going to expose getting up on the horse astride. _If this was anyone but Tom…._ she thought.

_If it was anyone but Tom, _the little voice in her head echoed back to her,_ you would never consider doing this. But since it's him, and since you know very well that you'll enjoy giving him the chance to see a little bit of leg, you might as well just go on then._

Sybil's face burned at the thought, which she swore Tom could read on her face as she turned towards him.

"Alright, then, here I go." She attempted to meet the blue eyes that were looking up at her from his spot on the ground. _Good God, he's down on one knee. He looks as though he's about to.._

Grabbing the saddle, she put a foot up on Tom's leg and swung her other into the stirrup. This part was easy. The difficult part would be swinging her other leg over, all under a couple layers of skirt and riding habit. With a twist of her body that sent her skirts flying she guided her other leg over, trying not to think about how much leg she was exposing along the way.

It took her only a second to settle on the saddle properly. "There!" She turned to face Tom triumphantly.

Tom smiled back at her. _She looks very well in that position, sitting on top like that…._ His mind drifted back to a recent dream he'd had. _Very well indeed._

Sybil flushed at the hungry look that suddenly passed over his face.

Struggling to break the intense blue gaze coming from beneath her, she loosened the reins in her hand and let the horse take a few steps forward.

"Now I will dismount and you can try."

Tom watched her as she came down from the horse, her back towards him. He wanted to reach out and help her down, but instead found himself just staring at her, watching her. This was a view of Sybil that he didn't always have a great deal of time to enjoy.

She turned and smiled at him. "You'll be fine, Tom, really. In fact, why don't we bring her over here, and then you can mount off that log, there, so you'll be bit higher up to begin with." As she was speaking she led the horse to a large log lying nearby.

Giving Sybil a slightly dubious look Tom shifted his attention back to the horse. What his fool mouth got him into. Here he was, hiding out in the woods of the Downton estate, alone with Sybil, making a complete arse of himself trying to mount a horse that scared him.

Stepping up on the log, Tom turned a slightly white face to Sybil.

"Go on, now. You can do it. You'll be fine. I'm right here." She gave him a smile that she hoped was encouraging.

This time Tom managed to get himself successfully up and onto the saddle. As soon as he sat, though, he felt the saddle begin to slide slightly to the left. "Shit! Bloody - !

Trying not to laugh, Sybil responded quickly. "Put your left foot in the stirrup and straighten your leg. That'll right you. Better?"

His tense body a bit more secure now, Tom turned to look down at her. At that moment the horse took another step forward and Tom felt his body lurch slightly. Wrapping his hands firmly around the front of the saddle, he turned a rather panicked face towards Sybil. "I'm sorry, Sybil. You're going to have to tell me how to get off of this thing. I just cannot do this."

"Yes you can." Sybil's voice was calm. "It's always a little frightening when you're learning." She hoped the expression on her face was encouraging. _He does look rather nice up there,_ she thought. _Not a knight in shining armor exactly, but still very handsome._

Tom, though, was still too uncomfortable to take much from her admiring expression.

"I'm getting down…"

"Give me your right hand, then." She interrupted him mid sentence. Stepping up onto the log herself, Sybil could feel her face burn bright red. She couldn't believe that she was about to do this. "Sit forward in the saddle more, and take your right foot out of the stirrup. Don't shift your body – just let your leg hang at the horse's side just in front of it."

She glanced at Tom quickly. Biting her bottom lip, and offering up a prayer that no one would find them out here, she gripped the lower part of his arm, inserted her right foot in the stirrup, and before Tom hardly knew what was happening, she swung herself up behind him.

Tom turned his head around as far as he could and stared at her. She was sitting on the saddle behind him, her body pressed up against his, her legs spread apart and wrapped around his backside.

_Holy Mother of – _The words almost escaped his lips.

Sybil's face was burning. She looked down, her breathing slightly shallow, as a full awareness of Tom's body came over her. _Sodding idiot. What in God's name made me do this?, _she mentally down didn't help much, though, as she found herself looking at the point where their bodies joined. _My, he does have a rather nice…._

"Sybil?" Tom's voice brought her eyes back up to his.

_He's close enough I could kiss him. _Sybil cleared her throat nervously. When she was on the ground it never occurred to her exactly how close their lips, of all things, might be. _Well done, Sybil. _ "Now you put your foot back in the stirrup" her voice broke slightly "and I'll hold the reins while you concentrate on keeping upright, and…"

_Interesting choice of words. _The thought flashed through Tom's mind before he could stop it. Forcing himself to turn his head forward, Tom wondered if Sybil had any idea what she'd just said.

Sybil, though, was too distracted by the fact that the reins in her hand were pulled quite taunt. In order to give the horse any room to move, she was going to have to bring her hands around Tom and hold the reins from there.

_Darn. _The voice in her head began to mock her again. _That's just too bad, now isn't it? You only have him, quite literally, between your legs. Not to mention that delicious looking neck that's within kissing distance. And now you have to put your arms around him too. Are you sure you didn't plan this all out? _

Shaking her head slightly, Sybil tried to banish her thoughts, though she was, of course, completely unsuccessful. She tried to imagine what Tom would think if he knew what was going though her mind. _And if that happened, I suspect we'd both be off the horse and off to... _As tantalizing as her thoughts were, though, nothing compared to the reality of Tom's sharp intake of breath as she put her arms around his chest. "Right. Now I'll just hold the reins and try to guide the horse with my…..and we'll get on fine. Just try to relax a little and..."

_Relax._ _Right. I can feel your breath on my neck when you speak, we're so close, and you want me to relax. _Suddenly all thoughts of fear from the horse were out of Tom's mind. He wondered briefly is it was physically possible for them to get any closer. _Well, other than that, of course._

Wrestling her eyes off of the back of Tom's neck, which she'd been admiring, Sybil turned her head so she could look over his shoulder. Clicking her tongue twice, she urged the horse to walk.

Tom was concentrating so hard on the feel of Sybil's body behind him that he lurched slightly when the horse moved. Sybil felt him slide and instinctively tightened her arms around Tom's chest. "Don't worry." She said the words softly, her breath tickling his ear. "I won't let you fall."

_It's a bit too late for that, I fear, _ he thought.

They were both silent as the horse continued to pick her way forward, each terribly conscious of the closeness of the other's body. Satisfied that the horse would be fine for a moment without any guidance, Sybil pulled her head back slightly and examined Tom closely. Her face protected from his sight, she left herself openly admire his shoulders and back. He was very well formed. Her eyes drifted from the collar of his shirt to his tanned neck, and the base of his hair. A wicked smile crossed her face as she resisted the temptation to blow on them, only too aware that the jolt Tom would give if she did so would probably throw them both off the horse and onto the ground.

As the horse walked on, Sybil could feel Tom's body start to relax ever so slightly, back against hers. Though she knew she shouldn't, she kept her torso upright, pressing her curves more fully against his back. Though she could have never explained why, the whole thing just felt…right. Good. A part of her wanted to close her eyes and rest her head on his shoulder, let her arms relax down, her hands falling to his thighs.

They rode in silence for several minutes, the quiet only broken by the sound of the leaves and twigs that crunched under the horse's feet.

Finally Sybil spoke. "See, riding's not that hard. You just have to learn to hold on to the horse with your…lower body…and give her direction by putting your knees tighter or looser to her sides, and then you do the same with the reins. You just point your body in the direction you want to go and the horse will follow."

Tom nodded, still not completely sure of what might come out of his mouth if he dared to open it.

"Now give me your right hand, and hold the reins with them, like I am." Sybil moved her hands up a bit higher to demonstrate.

_In for a penny…_ Tom thought as he released his right hand from the edge of the saddle. Pulling back his elbow slightly, he grasped both her hand and the reins in his.

The gesture made Sybil smile. _Here we sit, plastered one against the other, and yet he finds a way to get even closer._

As though he sensed her expression, Tom turned his head slightly to the side just then to catch her eye. She held his gaze for what seemed a long term, the smile on her lips widening until it shone on her entire face.

Unable to hold in his thoughts, Tom finally spoke. "We make a good team, you and I."

Sybil laughed. "Yes, I suppose we rather do."


End file.
